Comcast Says Hulu Ads Confuse Women, Aims To Target Demographic

Is this the online TV version of mud slinging? By saying someting, for example, that Hulu ads (during the Super Bowl) were intimidating and confusing to women, make it true? Certainly not and I believe that Comcast has done better to alienate the demographic than Hulu ever has.

According to a blog entry over at Fast Company, Comcast believes that Hulu’s quirky ads, which featured Seth McFarlane, Alec Baldwin and Elizabeth Dushku, alienate potential women viewers by being outside their scope of their understanding (i.e. confusing) or even intimidating. It seems they believe that using Ms. Dushku would actually push women away from Hulu. While I wish that were true since I’m no fan of them at present, I adhere to the ‘Men want her, women want to be her’ line of advertising thinking. I also think that Comcast, in their ‘infinite wisdom’ may have done more to alienate those same women through their arrogance in assuming that women were simply out of touch with things like who Seth McFarlane is and are intimidated by beautiful women in media.

Well wait a second. If women were afraid of beautiful women on TV and film they would never do things like dress like them, buy the products they buy or try to imitate them. In fact, I think that products like Victoria’s Secret, Garnier, and any makeup brand would simply go out of business as that is all they ever seem to use in their ads, beautiful women.

Fancast, Comcast’s competitor to Hulu, will begin with clips from CSI: Miami, NCIS, and How I Met Your Mother. All shows that score highly with women I’m guessing since that’s the market they are aiming to reach. There will also be accompanying ads to go with them.

A quote from the Fancast about page: Fancast is THE top entertainment site dedicated to celebrating television.

Perhaps, but probably not for women after Comcast showed how out of touch they might be with that demographic. It seems that the war for online viewership is heating up and the mud-slinging has begun. Come on guys, let’s just have a clean fight and may the best site win!

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